


fairy tales and misguided love spells

by lunariaans



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: Childhood Friends, Eventual Romance, F/M, Romance, Slow Burn, Unrequited Love, yall know me im not good with tagging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 19:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11561685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunariaans/pseuds/lunariaans
Summary: Tobin's known Faye for as long as he can remember, and he's known that she's been in love with someone else for just as long.Tobin wants to outshine the others, but he finds that he's done it in the most unexpected way.aka: We try to fix Faye's character





	fairy tales and misguided love spells

**Author's Note:**

> hello, i am back with another fic while i have two unfinished and another in the works lol (they'll get finished eventually i SWEAR). but anyways, this is basically....idk a way to try and make Faye more likable?? tbh the writers done did her dirty by making her obsessed with Alm so the goal of this fic is to play off of that and ease her out of it. I really hope to do good of Faye and Tobin's characters with this fic. Please enjoy!

Tobin remembers playing with Faye behind their houses.

He remembers making piles of mud and pretending they were cakes, using leaves as plates and the grass as a topping. He remembers sitting with her and the other kids beneath his family's orange tree, and he remembers convincing Faye to try and reach the higher branches. He remembers playing with her and her dolls, indulging her for just a little while, so long as the other kids didn't come over and spot them.

He remembers sitting behind their houses with Faye and he remembers how his parents would yell for him to come in for supper.

Faye was always invited, of course, but often times she refused and opted to go home to her parents instead. Tobin didn't really care whether she stayed or not; the dinner table was nearly full enough as it is. He often wondered why his parents would offer to feed another mouth when they had a hard enough time trying to feed the ones they already had. 

He really only hung out with her when Gray was out of town, off with his father for some sort of business. Tobin's never really been sure exactly what his father does, he just knows he travels a lot, and sometimes he took Gray with him—away from Tobin. He doesn't like it.

But he doesn't mind hanging out with Faye, she's alright for the most part—that is, until Celica comes around.

Celica is mysterious and intriguing, almost appearing in the small village out of the blue one day, and she lives with Alm at the elder Mycen's house. She is nice and kind, but she's not afraid to put the rest of the village boys in their place if they get too rowdy with her. Everyone wants to be the new girl Celica's friend, but she spends most of her time with Alm.

She stays in the small village for three months at most, but for Faye, that is three months too long.

Tobin doesn't notice it right away. In fact, he thought that the two would hit it off almost immediately, but as soon as she seemed to notice that Celica and Alm were spending most of their waking moments together, Faye had started to change.

Faye would come over to Tobin's house to play and automatically complain about how Alm wasn't there. She would complain the whole day about him and Celica, and Tobin would grow bored with hearing it.

Alm this, Celica that. Why would she come around and waste his time with that? He didn't like when she would complain about their friends.

"Why don't you like Celica?" he had asked her one day.

She had frowned at him. "She takes all of Alm's attention away from m—from us. He doesn't even bother to come play with the rest of us anymore."

"Aren't you happy with just me and Gray and Kliff?"

"You're not Alm."

"Well, no. I'm Tobin."

"You wouldn't understand," she huffed, and Tobin knits his eyebrows together.

What was there to understand?

"You're being selfish, Faye. My mom says you can't just have one person all to yourself. Sharing is caring."

She had whipped her head around to look at him, her braids swinging violently with the motion.

"Celica keeps him all to _herself_."

And Tobin frowned in response because it was partly true. They were often together, off in the woods, or the flower fields, with no one but themselves. It maybe wasn't fair. Tobin missed Alm being around too.

"Well that's just because—"

"She's being selfish," she had said, patting down the mud a little harder than necessary. "That's why I don't like her."

"But everyone else does."

Faye didn't seem to like that as she practically slapped the mud, pieces of it flying in all directions, some landing on her face and in her hair.

Tobin had stayed quiet for a long while, trying to think of what to say, but he wasn't really sure how to cheer her up. He didn't get why she was so upset.

"Maybe they'll come to play with all of us together soon. But until then, you can always come play with me. We can do whatever you wanted to do with Alm and I'll—"

"You'll never be Alm!" she had shouted.

So Tobin stayed quiet and didn't say anything until his mother had called him in for supper. She goes back home with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed, but Tobin doesn't really care because _she_ isn't Celica either.

 

* * *

 

 

Tobin remembers this one moment specifically as he, Gray, Kliff, and Faye sit on the old fence right near the entrance to the small village. Gray has throwing knives—something he had brought back from one of his father's trips—and he throws them precariously at the fence sitting on the opposite side of the narrow dirt road.

"You think Alm and the old man are almost done?" Gray asks, another knife falling shortly to the ground.

Tobin sighs. "Don't know. Sure hope so."

Gray throws another, this one hitting a post of the other fence, but falling after it fails to stick.

"Alm's actually doing something useful, unlike you guys," Faye says, but even she is bored as well, and Tobin knows that she wishes that Alm were here most of all. "He's training really hard with Sir Mycen."

"You're just as desperate as the rest of us, Faye," Gray cracks at her, hopping off the fence to retrieve his knives. "Don't act like you don't want him here too."

"Don't call me desperate," she says through gritted teeth, and Gray laughs at her. "And besides, what exactly are you doing, right now, in this moment, that could be considered useful? All you’re doing is taking up space and precious air."

Tobin lets out a low 'ooh' and Kliff actually chuckles, looking up momentarily from the practice sword lying in his lap.

"Boys don't like girls who are mean, Faye,” Gray says now with a scowl. "Celica was never this mean to us."

Tobin prepares for the beating he is about to witness. A jab to the arm, a slap to the head; anything from Faye will most definitely hurt.

But he is surprised when all she does is cross her arms and turn her nose up and away.

"Well, she isn't here now, is she?"

Celica has been gone longer than she had ever stayed by now, and each passing day seemed to churn something within Faye. Kliff had noticed it first, Alm was still oblivious.

"Shut up."

Gray mocks her with a patronizing voice as he strolls back over to their fence, hopping back up onto it once again.

"Sometimes I wonder who fights more," Kliff says from his spot, hitting the plank between his legs lamely with his practice sword. "Gray and Tobin—or Gray and Faye."

"Eh, you can't beat the classic," Gray replies, starting his task of throwing once again. "Ol' Tobes and me could never be beat."

Tobin laughs, pushing Gray back off the fence.

"Faye does have a point though," Kliff speaks again. "None of you are really doing anything useful."

"Sure I am. I'm practicing my throwing skills."

"And I'm supervising him."

Kliff rolls his eyes. "When will you ever need throwing skills? You could better your time by spending it at your father's shop."

Gray scrunches up his nose. "Yeah, but that's boring. And besides...the old man doesn't usually let me hang out in there."

"Me neither," Tobin says, and he watches with amusement as Kliff rolls his eyes once again, surely thinking of all the possible scenarios that could've gotten the two banned from Gray's own family's shop.

"You were included in that sentiment, Kliff," Faye says. She places her head on her hand, balancing her elbow on her knee. "All you're doing is holding a practice sword. You're not even swinging it."

"Oh? And what is it that you're doing? I wouldn't say daydreaming about Alm is exactly useful."

Tobin watches as Faye takes on a deadly look, her eyes narrowed and her mouth slowly opening to speak. It scares even him from where he is sitting, but Kliff is unrelenting as he just sits there and chuckles, her cheeks growing red.

Tobin hears Gray throw another knife and the wood of the fence chipping.

But he's not exactly paying attention to Gray or his awful throwing skills as he's too busy looking beyond the entrance to their village.

He feels his heart stop for a short second, adrenaline quickly rushing throughout him as he sees a man in red armor approaching on the narrow dirt trail.

"Guys," he's barely able to push out, but he knows they've heard as Kliff and Faye scramble off of the fence, the latter scraping her knees against the dirt.

He hears Gray curse behind him, also hopping off the fence and hurrying to retrieve his throwing knives. Faye and Kliff rush to hide behind Tobin, and he bitterly thinks of what cowards they are.

Yet he knows he is one also, his feet glued to the spot as he is unable to move or run away. He stands there in shock, waiting for the soldier to approach them, to do something to them like they had so many years ago.

The soldier grows closer, and Tobin can see that he has a smile on his face upon seeing them there. It's off putting; he knows that a soldier on this side of the continent could mean nothing good.

"What do we do?" he hears Gray say next to him, and he knows that he is just itching to throw.

"J-just wait for him to do something."

"Don't attack him first," Kliff says from behind. "You do that and he can do what he wants to us."

Tobin thinks it's weird how he isn't riding a horse into town, and he wonders if he's walked all the way from where he was from, or if he's just hiding his horse and the rest of his battalion behind the tree lines where no one would be able to see them. 

"Sh-should I go get Sir Mycen?" Faye asks from behind him, but no one hears her as the soldier stops in front of them, bowing his head and putting on another placating smile.

"Good day," he says simply, and Tobin takes in his appearance. Short cropped hair in an unusual color of red. The armor he wears is scarce, not much more than that of a foot soldier's, but he finds it somewhat amusing that it matches his hair in color.

"I am searching for Sir Mycen. This is Ram Village, correct?"

Yet that is the only thing he finds amusing about this situation. He's all too wary of strangers now when he should've been back then. A lesson learned far too late.

"Who're you?" Gray asks, and Tobin can tell that he is on edge. He looks down and he sees that Gray is white knuckling those throwing knives, his last two fingers twitching, itching to let them loose through the man's skull.

"Ah, forgive me," the knight says, bowing his head in an apology. "I am Lukas, a soldier with the Deliverance—"

"What's your business here?"

"Gray, you idiot," Kliff says, taking a small step out from behind Tobin. "He just told us what he's here for."

Lukas looks between Kliff and Gray, his friendly smile falling a little to reveal a bit of confusion.

"Well, as I said, I am with the Deliverance and we were hoping to—"

"What's the Deliverance?" Gray interrupts again, and his tone is almost accusing.

Lukas blinks. "Oh. Well, uh, it's a liberation army of sorts—"

"Liberation? Who're you tryna liberate yourself from?"

"Well, you see—"

"Is there an uprising going on or something? Are you guys trying to take down King Lima?"

"No, I'm sorry to inform you, but King Lima IV—"

"If you're with a liberation army, then where's the rest of the army?"

"They're—"

"Gray, will you _shut up_ and let him _speak?_ " Kliff finally interjects.

Gray shoots him a glare, but promptly shuts his mouth, allowing the time needed for someone else.

"Thank you," Lukas says, opening his mouth to speak, but he doesn't get to.

There's the sound of feet hitting the dirt path and then the voice of a friend, all of them turning to look as Faye shouts out with relief: "Alm!"

And so Alm comes jogging down the path, confusion hitting his face as he sees the red haired soldier, as Gray warns him to keep one hand at his waist, as Kliff talks about how he's from somewhere far away, as Faye asks him about something completely unrelated.

Alm and the soldier talk, and the rest listen in. The king is dead, sold out and devoured by the conquerors of Rigel, who now inhabit several military bases—including the castle—in Zofia. Lukas speaks of how the ever noble Knights of Zofia had left, forming their own liberation army called the Deliverance in hopes of restoring the kingdom to her former glory. By the end of it all, Tobin feels his hands shaking. He looks over to see Gray's eyebrows knit together tightly, and Faye standing nervously behind Alm.

Lukas asks to see Sir Mycen once more and Alm agrees to take him to his grandfather. The rest stay behind, watching the two walk back up the path towards Alm's house.

"So there's going to be a war," Tobin thinks, but he doesn't realize he's said it out loud until he hears Faye let out a small breath.

Kliff shakes his head, tossing the practice sword into the brush besides the entrance to the village. "There already is one, from the sound of things."

"But that's...that's awful!" Faye whimpers. "If Sir Mycen rides off to war, what'll happen to Alm?"

Tobin wants to assure her that everything will be alright, but no one has the will or the courage to speak up and lie.

And no one says anything as Alm and Lukas come back some time later—without Sir Mycen. Lukas is saying goodbye, thanking them for their help, and turning towards the entrance when Alm stops him.

"I'll join the Deliverance," he says, and it feels as if he's dropped a glass bowl in a quiet room. 

They begin to protest.

Alm? Leaving for war? That didn't seem right yet...they all knew it was what he really wanted. He spent hours training with his grandfather every day, a sword in his hand usually or a sword at his side when he was not. They knew it was what he wanted, but none of them were ready to accept it as a reality yet.

But then he asks them to join him on his journey and they suddenly fall silent. All of them? In a war? None of _them_ were meant for greatness. They were just kids from a village not on most maps.

Lukas promises them all that there is nobility and money to be earned through their heroic deeds with the liberation army. It sounds good, but then Tobin remembers that war is an unrelenting hellscape, death being a plague among the battlefield.

But then Gray agrees, and so Tobin must as well. He was not about to be out shined by one, let alone two of his best friends.

Once Tobin agrees—with a promise of money that he could easily send back home—Kliff agrees as well, stating something about getting to see the world for what it really is.

Tobin knows that Faye had decided that she must go along as well the moment Alm said he was, but she doesn't state it plainly until Kliff does.

Alm smiles at all of them widely, thanking each of them before turning on his heel and jogging back up the path to his home, hoping to say goodbye to his grandfather one final time.

Gray leaves to do the same, and so does Kliff, and Tobin waits until they are a little ways up the path before he turns to look at Faye, knowing that their destinations are the same, hers just being a few feet to the left.

"You shouldn't—"

"You can't stop me from leaving," she tells him, crossing her arms. She keeps her eyes straight ahead on the path. "I know that's what you're gonna say."

He crosses his own arms turning to fully face her. "What makes you say that?"

"You're always trying to tell me what to do," Her eyes flit downwards. "But you know I'll do what I want anyways."

"What you want?" he asks. "Or what Alm wants?"

"What's the difference?"

Tobin sighs, placing his hands on his hips. The thought of taking Faye along with them to war makes his stomach churn. She was like another one of his siblings. He wants her to stay here, away from it all.

"Listen, Faye," he starts, choosing his words carefully. "You and me both know that Alm is...different from us."

Her only response is the slight scowl settling on her face.

"He's gonna be just fine in a war. He's had the best teacher for that. But the rest of us? We're not like him. We never took our lessons with Sir Mycen as seriously as Alm did. We're not meant for war."

She finally looks up at him, her brown eyes meeting his.

"Then why're you going?"

"Faye, it's different for me."

She scowls.

"I've learned plenty from Sir Mycen! I always took my time with him seriously."

"Not like Alm," he sighs, and that causes her to stomp her foot before starting to walk up the path.

He's right beside her though, grabbing one arm to stop her, and once he's sure that she's not going to hit him, he speaks again.

"Remember when we were younger, and those soldiers came through town?"

She gives him a warning look, daring him to bring up the rest of the story.

"Remember how they tried to take you _and_ Celica?"

"Tobin, what're you—?"

"There's gonna be sick men just like them—no, worse than them—out there, waiting for someone like you to come along. Only this time they won't take you. They'll _kill_ you." 

She gives him a pointed look. "Well I won't have to worry about that if all of you are there with me, now will I?"

"Faye, that's not the point!"

"Then what is, Tobin?"

He groans, running a hand through his hair and down his face. Why couldn't she just listen to what he was saying?

"What're you gonna do if none of us are around? What if something happens to you and—"

"Why aren't you giving this speech to Kliff? He's younger than all of us; if anyone should be staying home, it's him."

"Well, to be honest, I don't think Kliff will make it past the gate—"

"Is it because I'm a _girl?_ " she asks, and Tobin feels his face heat up.

That wasn't it at all; Tobin knew this girl could fight. He knew that Faye was decent with a sword and he knew that she hit the hardest out of all of them, but he thinks about the stories he's heard of wars, of how the stench of blood is thick and the number of bodies is high. He's heard of these stories and he thinks about how his family is going to feel when he tells them he's off to be a part of it—and then he thinks of her family, and how they are going to feel very soon knowing that their only daughter is off to be a part of it as well, all in the name of an unrequited love.

"Faye, I just—"

"Wherever Alm goes, I go," she says firmly, and Tobin knows that he will never truly be able to convince her otherwise.

She stands there looking smug, placing her hands on her hips and waiting for him to retaliate, but all he can do now is sigh once more before turning back towards the village.

"Well," He takes in a big breath of air, turning his head down to frown at her. "Let's go say goodbye then."

Her face lights up but he can't seem to make himself feel any of the joy from it. She starts practically skipping up the path ahead of him.

He looks back behind him towards the entrance of the village, Lukas standing there, simply looking around, and waiting for all of them to return. Tobin notices for the first time the lance strapped to his back. How could he have missed _that?_

He can imagine the looks on his parents' faces when he says goodbye. He can imagine the tears in his younger siblings' eyes. They'll be so sad but the image in front of him feels so wrong.

_How can she be so happy_ , he thinks to himself. _How can she be so happy knowing what we're about to do?_

Her pigtails fly behind her as she slips away, realization finally settling in and making a home within his heart.

_We're going off to war._

**Author's Note:**

> I've been kinda out of practice with writing but I finally found the inspiration to finish at least a chapter of something before I leave for Korea. I have another Echoes fic in the works that I've been waiting to post because I think I want to make it a one shot but by the looks of it, it's going to be at least 2, maybe 3, chapters long. and oh my god.....that fic is the rarest of rare pairs i have written for to date and it's not even romantic exactly? I honestly do not think anyone will be able to guess who they are but HINT: the fic's title will be "of churches and monasteries (and other holy things)" Anyways, thank you for reading and I sincerely hope you will come back for more!!


End file.
